The Hindu Business Line : ADB to double lending to India

AN INTERACTION: Mr Haruhiko Kuroda, President and Chairperson, Board of Directors, ADB, and Mr A. K. Purwar, Chairman, SBI, at an interaction meeting with FICCI members in the Capital on Friday. - Kamal Narang

New Delhi , March 10

The President of the Asian Development Bank, Mr Haruhiko Kuroda, has said that the multilateral agency would lend $2.25 billion to India in the calendar year 2006, against $1.2 billion last year.

Mr Kuroda said that in 2007, the ADB planned to raise its lending to India to $2.65 billion.

"The focus will be on transport, energy, and to a lesser degree, on rural sectors like agriculture," Mr Haruhiko Kuroda said at a press conference here on Friday.

Mr Kuroda said the Indian economy was set to grow at 8 per cent during the current fiscal. The assessment was in tune with the Reserve Bank of India's projections.

"If infrastructure improves and economic reforms continue, higher growth is possible, of 9-10 per cent," he said.

On the global oil market, Mr Kuroda said that he expected prices to decline over the next 2-3 years. "In March 2005 were $25-$30 a barrel. Then from April last year, oil prices went up sharply to reach as much as $70 per barrel. Currently, they are now around $60 per barrel. They are still quite high. I presume oil prices will gradually decline perhaps to as much as $50 a barrel at the end of this year or even less than that," he said. He said that was not much possibility of oil prices to fall back to the $25-$30 per barrel level.

Meanwhile, ADB is planning to raise $300-400 million from the domestic bond market and step up lending to the country.

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